


Orioles in December

by bluetoast



Series: Birds of a Feather [75]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas, Deaf Dean Winchester, F/M, Gen, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 13:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5092643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluetoast/pseuds/bluetoast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liesel is home for the holidays, depressed over losing her spot on the softball team due to a change in the administration of the athletic department.  Her dad, stepmom and stepbrother, however, are determined to cheer her up.</p><p>Written for HC_Bingo: Prompt - Amnesia</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orioles in December

Liesel stared at up at the ceiling of her room, trying to remember if she'd ever been so angry in her life. She wanted to scream, she wanted to throw things, she wanted to march all the way to that utter creep of an athletic director's house in Athens and start chucking softballs at it. She had played her heart out for the Lady Bulldogs at the University of Georgia for two years, and now, with a change in staff in the department and two new coaches, she had been removed from the team, despite her outstanding sportsmanship and her school record of seventeen stolen bases. Apparently, the only girls who got to play ball were the ones over five foot five, or something. Well, at least they'd told her and the other girls cut from the team _before_ Christmas break, rather than waiting until after. She wasn't going to leave all of her gear at home when she went back to school in January. Batting cages were a great place to relieve stress. 

She rolled over and hugged her pillow to her, pressing her face into fabric, willing the tears to stop. She wasn't going to cry over this – crying wouldn't do any good. It wouldn't get her back on the team, it wouldn't... 

“Lis?” David's voice came from the doorway. “You want some dinner? It's spaghetti and meatballs – and there's garlic knots.” 

She pushed herself up, a soreness in her ribs; it was going to rain tonight. “I'm coming. I'll just wash my face and then I'll be down. Thanks.” She gave her stepbrother a smile. “Won't be long.” She took a breath and rose from the bed as she heard him head downstairs. She should have known better, really. She wouldn't have made the Olympic Softball Team – she was too bloody small. She went into the bath and ran the hot water in the sink for a few minutes before taking a cloth and running it over her face. 

As she turned the water off, she blinked a few times in the mirror; she could have sworn she had seen someone else's face staring back at her. Older, a woman with red hair and blue eyes – a different blue than hers, but with a familiar face. She rubbed her face with a towel, took a deep breath and headed to the dining room, just as her dad was setting the bread basket on the table. _“I see you got the tree up.”_

 _“We were waiting for you to come home before we decorated it.”_ Her dad smiled and gave her a hug. _“Then again, it's been a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving.”_

She slid into her seat as Jess and David joined them. “It seems like the time between Thanksgiving and Finals was just one really long week, not three of them.” She signed as she spoke.

“No kidding.” Jess replied, doing the same. _“I can't believe it's already Christmas.”_

 _“It seems to get here faster and faster every year.”_ Dad offered and they all sat down at the table. 

Liesel lost track of the conversation between her dad and David after they said grace, she thought it might be related to school. She was more focused on her food than she was anything else. She was going to enjoy the first decent Italian food she'd had in a month; she couldn't stand the pasta they served at school, it was usually overcooked and the sauce tasted like the cans they came out of. There was always pizza, but she couldn't eat it every night. She pulled a garlic knot apart and ran one of the halves through the sauce before taking a bite.

The wonderful taste of garlic, salt, butter, bread and her grandmother's special recipe tomato sauce flushed through her, and she smiled, but then, similarly to in the bathroom a few minutes earlier, an unsettled feeling washed over her, and a name came to her; _Heather Grace._ The woman she had seen in the mirror was named Heather Grace.

“Are you all right, Lis?” Her father's voice brought her back to reality. 

She looked up, swallowing. “I think I'm overtired. It's a long drive from Athens to Austin.” 

“I don't know how you and Georgina make it.” Jess shook her head. “I can barely stand the drive to San Antonio, and that's just around two hours.” 

_“That's only because San Antonio is full of insane drivers.”_ David's mouth was full, and he grinned at the faces of the rest of them made at him. _“It's true!”_

 _“He does have a point.”_ Dad offered. _“It makes those drivers in DC look normal.”_

 _“The only people who know how to drive in DC are chauffeurs.”_ Liesel took another bite of garlic knot. _“That's what granddad says.”_

 _“And he'd know best.”_ Dad shook his head. 

David swallowed and wiped his mouth. “You'll still be here on the eighth, right?” 

Liesel nodded as she added cheese to her pasta then looked up. “Don't tell me you think I should come with you to that extras casting call for that _Pendragon_ miniseries or whatever they're making.” 

“Why not?” He shrugged. “If they can pass off an Austin suburb as a New York suburb, and it's not like you have to be able to act to be an extra.”

“I think that's a good idea.” Jess took up her fork. “Besides, you're the one who introduced David to that series in the first place.” 

Dad leaned against his hand, giving her an amused smile. “You are the girl who got a discipline notice for fighting daleks in preschool.”

“What?” David cried as Liesel went pink and covered her face with her hand.

“I thought Ignacia was _joking_ when she told me that!” Jess added.

“Oh yes.” Dad's voice was full of amusement. “Though as she had no sonic screwdriver, she was content to use...” He paused, thinking. “Oh, yes – she had a magic paintbrush.” 

“I was defending my classmates.” She might not remember preschool _that_ well, but she could clearly remember how Mister Keith and Miss Jackie were always up for the game. “And this is the thanks I get.” 

“This is why I love it when you're home Lis.” David sat back in his chair. “Mom and Dean leave me alone for a change.” 

“If you get onto that show and you somehow meet him, you are _not_ to tell Paul McGann how I used to want his version of the Doctor for a babysitter!” She seethed at him. 

“I didn't know that.” He grinned and she went even redder. “How come you never talk about this stuff, Dean?” 

“I'm saving it for when Lis finally brings home a boyfriend that lasts longer than a few months.” He winked at her. “Just like your mother is hiding all of your baby pictures for the same reason.” 

_“Mom!”_ Now it was David's turn to blush. “You're not going to show the picture me dressed up as Anna from _Frozen_...wait, you...” He went as red as the tomato sauce. “It was a phase.” He said through clenched teeth.

Jess took a drink of wine and then smiled. “Well, I know what we can do on Christmas Day then. We'll get out all of the photos and tell stories we've forgotten about.”

Her stepbrother leaned towards her, his face slightly panicked. “I had a thing for Disney princesses when I was like, four. I will pay you anything you want not to tell my friends.”

Liesel leaned back in her seat, grinning. “Dish duty after Christmas brunch.”

“Done!” He turned his attention to his food. 

“Now I have an extra reason to look forward to this holiday.” Dad remarked as his picked up his fork. “It's been a long time since I thought about all the cute things Lis used to do.” He gave her a smile, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes suddenly became prominent. “Do you still have that recorder? I haven't seen it lately.” 

She set her hand next to her plate, wondering if her dad remembered exactly how she'd acquired the tenor recorder that was currently sitting in its case in her room on a shelf. She could still remember that Christmas morning when she woke up in their old house; how she actually thought that the Doctor (which would have been Matt Smith at the time) had come into their house in the middle of the night and left his old recorder, (from when the role belonged to Patrick Troughton) and how full of hope she'd been that her request to Santa was going to be granted. “I do.” She took up the rest of her garlic knot and shoved it into her mouth, the wonderful taste of butter and garlic couldn't quite keep the sorrow at bay – all she had really wanted that year was for Mom to get better.

Odds were, Dad had forgotten that. 

*

Dean was telling the truth at dinner; it _had_ been a long time since he thought about when Liesel was a little girl. Mainly because to him, she would _always_ be his little girl, no matter how big she got, no matter how far away she was. He'd seen her reaction to him mentioning the recorder at dinner; and then instantly remembered how the instrument came to be in her possession. Ignacia had been more excited than their daughter was for that Christmas morning. 

He could clearly remember waking up to five year old Liesel jumping on the foot of the bed, and while part of him wanted to tell her it was too early, that she shouldn't be bothering her mother so, the look of delight on her face and the equally happy face of Ignacia held his tongue; he stored the memory away in that part that was bittersweet. His little girl had only a handful of memories connected to her mother, and when she grew older and knew the truth behind the recorder, it still remained in his mind, a symbol of the times before everything became... like it was now. 

He came to the top of the stairs and then looked down into the main room of the house, the Christmas Tree created a halo of light and he could see Jess stacking some gifts underneath it, and he was glad that they had waited for Liesel to come home to put it up. For some reason, he missed her more this year than he had previously. He saw that his daughter's door was cracked and her overhead light was still on, and he went and knocked, knowing she was still up. He nudged it slightly. “Liesel?”

The girl looked up from her suitcase, which was on her bed. “Dad?” She dropped the pair of jeans she was holding. _“What's wrong?”_

 _“I wanted to check on you.”_ He stepped into the room, looking around, his eyes catching on the recorder case lying on the bedside table. He went over and ran his fingers over it, then looked back at his daughter. _“Your mom was so excited when she found this.”_

 _“I think I actually believed it was from the Doctor until I was nine, or rather, it was the actual recorder they used in the show.”_ She tossed the jeans into a pile, then sighed. _“I was just sorting my laundry now, so I don't have to do it in the morning. I can just get straight to work.”_

Dean sighed and came over to her, holding her upper arms and placing a kiss on her forehead. _“May I also state that it is complete and utter bullshit that they have removed you from the Lady Bulldogs softball team?”_ He shook his head. _“I'd love to see any of those other girls beat your stolen base records. Hell, I'd love to see anyone playing for the Orioles, Astros or Rangers beat it!”_

 _“That's not fair to me. The pros have a longer season.”_ She grinned. _“I'll be fine, Dad. The scholarships are still going to be honored.”_

 _“Don't want to transfer to the University of Texas, do you?”_ He gave her a half-teasing, half-hopeful look.

 _“What, you really want me back in the house that badly?”_ She covered her mouth and coughed. _“It's not like there's a major league waiting for me after school...”_ She paused. _“and the Olympic thing... well, I think mom won enough medals for all three of us.”_

Dean laughed and hugged her, a feeling of relief settling over him as she returned it. If there was one thing he knew well, it was being removed from a team because of an asshole; he'd had it happen before Sydney and he'd sat at home in Potomac and watch his fellow gymnasts get torn apart, and in the case of the women, robbed, while he won a string of college tournaments. They might not have the prestige of an Olympic medal, but that hadn't mattered. Just as it didn't matter to him if Liesel was a superstar or not. All he wanted for his little girl was for her to be happy. 

For all he knew, in other realities, there were other Dean Coulters who were called Dean Winchester and had daughters who weren't nearly as lucky as his little girl was.


End file.
